Resumen de Protection challenges facing rwandan refugees in south africa
On December 30, 2011, the UNHCR issued a formal statement declaring that Rwanda is a safe country for Rwandan refugees to return, thereby requesting their host countries to apply a cessation clause that would, among other things, render their refugee status revoked and eventually their refugee rights nullified. In its recommendation, the UNHCR stressed repatriation as the most favourable option over local integration and resettlement. This move was criticised by a number of human rights organisations due to the fact that there is an oppressive regime in Rwanda with a high record of human rights abuses. In this paper it is argued that the declaration simply served to add the general anxiety among Rwandan refugees who were and still are, like in many other countries, facing institutionalised exclusion in the socio-economic realm. The aim of the paper is to illustrate the protection challenges facing Rwandan refugees in South Africa and the manner in which an absence of formal declaration of South Africa’s position on the issue of the applicability of a cessation clause as it pertains to the said group of refugees have substantially augmented their state of limbo and uncertainty about their future; the situation under which they have been living for two decades to date.
